Philip de Laszlo: Princess Victoria & Count Mensdorff

"Princess Victoria, Daughter of Edward VII"

"Count Albert von Mensdorff"

"Having received an unexpected message from the royal household to paint Princess Victoria in a few hours time, Philip de Laszlo bought the needed supplies and had them sent to Buckingham Palace. The queen had also expressed her desire that he should paint the Princess on the same kind of board on which he had done another sketch. He lamented, 'I knew that I could not obtain such boards in London, but remembered that I had brought some of my unmounted drawings packed between two of these boards, never thinking that it might be necessary to use them. 

By the time I arrived at half-past two I was ushered straight to Princess Victoria, who took me to her own sitting-room, looking out on to the courtyard. She was exceedingly charming and helpful, and by three o'clock I had started the sketch. I had hardly been at work for an hour when the King suddenly appeared at the door of the study with a pen in his hand and his spectacles on his nose. 

He smiled and then glanced at my easel. 'Hullo, what is this?' he exclaimed. 'There is already a portrait on this board! It looks like Albert Mensdorff!' I was horrified. Apologizing to the Princess, I looked at the back of the board on which I was painting. To my astonishment I saw that the King was right. It was a sketch I had made of Count Mensdorff. 

What had happened was that when I rushed up to my room in the hotel, I had not looked at both sides of the board, but just made sure that one side was clean and in good condition. Even when I had placed it on my easel, I had not noticed that there was anything on the other side.When I explained how this had come about the King and the Princess laughed.

'Well, this will be a very interesting incident,' declared His Majesty. 'When I am gone, my life will be written, and my biographer will say that the Princess Royal fell in love with the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador. They wanted to marry, but King Edward disapproved, but at least they had the gratification of being painted on the same board!'

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Portrait of a Painter" by Owen Rutter.)